So it "looks" like 18db is fairly noise free, anything down from that is good to go, and anything above would benefit from a "wash and go" from NeatVideo. I wonder, how lit was the room from your human eye perspective in these shots?

My VG10, which I must say is pretty horrid, still works as a B camera for those handy little shots, as long as I "Neat" the files, and pull my EX1 shots back to help match things up, also, I use slo-mo a lot, the Vg20, with 50p will suddenly become a really viable tool, as the 5N cannot shoot for hours without running out of power, stopping because of file length limitation, or just overheating.

UK prices are stupid, I found a body only, for £1600, whilst the same dealer was showing the full body and lens for £1750. The lens is marketed here for £650 inc. tax sooo, the body should be £1200 ish ??

Guess its a wait and see how this all pads out, I'm not worried too much by the lack of set ups in the camera, editing with everything from RED to D5 to EX1 to PD150 here, there are ways to deal with most issues, I'm just happy to see 50P, expanded focus, zebras and is there a lanc? no I guess not.

"So it "looks" like 18db is fairly noise free, anything down from that is good to go, and anything above would benefit from a "wash and go" from NeatVideo. I wonder, how lit was the room from your human eye perspective in these shots? "

Responsed: I assume you are talking about stills. That was in windowless garage. In back of camera was a two bulb shop light pointing away and bouncing off a ligher wall. There was bulb overhead. Think of it as a room without a lot of reflective surfaces and a lot of clutter blocking direct light, with dark shadow corners.

"... there are ways to deal with most issues, I'm just happy to see 50P, expanded focus, zebras and is there a lanc? no I guess not."

1. My shots all 24p. Except golf ones I posted. I mostly shoot 24p.

2. Expanded focus works well, though button is not hand form my fat hands when hand holding. Note, it will work even as you are shooting, which is different from my FX1 or my Canon DSLRs.

3. Zebras only settable at 100% and 70% Would like to see 90%. If you are at 100%, you are definitely pushing into clipping area.

4. No lanc I could find on camera. Does have a remote. It actually operates menu system, and starts and stops. Its a standard remote, because it has zoom funtion which of course does not work with the manual zoom.

4. No lanc I could find on camera. Does have a remote. It actually operates menu system, and starts and stops. Its a standard remote, because it has zoom funtion which of course does not work with the manual zoom.[/QUOTE]

The AV set up for the VG20 is something different from what I have seen before. While there is HDMI out, there is also a single socket that handles composite and component out- Something like the old socket on the FX1 component out, but with this socket also carries sound. Is that what you refer too ? Nothing in handbook that I can find. There is a mic socket on the handle, and earphone jack, but I am not so sure there is any way to hook a controller into the camera, There is a USB port too.

The AV set up for the VG20 is something different from what I have seen before. While there is HDMI out, there is also a single socket that handles composite and component out- Something like the old socket on the FX1 component out, but with this socket also carries sound. Is that what you refer too ? Nothing in handbook that I can find. There is a mic socket on the handle, and earphone jack, but I am not so sure there is any way to hook a controller into the camera, There is a USB port too.

The AV socket is multi purpose, the socket will accept the Sony RM-AV2 Remote Commander which controls Zoom, Rec start stop for Video/ Photo and on off.
Also a range of AV Sony tripods (not very well made) Including VCT-80V use the socket with the above features built in to the handle and add frame guides on/off and zoom speed.
If you search on line you will find adapter cables that will allow you to plug in the standard lanc, but i'm not sure if that will access any more features.

I'll presume that the VG20 has the "D" shaped A/V socket? Chris, from your description that sounds like the one - it has multiple I/O functions depending on what's plugged into it. ONE of those functions is an interface for the traditional "LANC" protocol.

SInce this camera uses a manual zoom, I would expect the simple AV2 to only start/stop recording and shoot a still. Beyond that, there may or may not be other funcions of the camera accessible via that port and LANC protcol. There are a number of functions that CAN be triggered via LANC instructions, but the implementation seems to be rather spotty beyond the very basic ones... for simplicity, let's just say sometimes things don't trigger as expected... and there aren't too many "advanced" controllers out there. My suspicion is that this (LANC) was one of those "standards" that never really became "standard", but rather has mfr and camera specific implementations, as even different Sony cameras will have different handling from the experimentation I did on the A/V LANC interface...